


A Study in Fire and Ice (or Four Draco/Ginny-centric Drabbles)

by Koren M (CyberMathWitch)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Banter, Crushes, Draco/Ginny Last Drabble Writer Standing Round 2, F/M, owl droppings, rickety staircases
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-08
Updated: 2012-07-07
Packaged: 2017-11-09 09:55:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/454178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CyberMathWitch/pseuds/Koren%20M
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Drabbles from round two of the Draco/Ginny Last Drabble Writer Standing competition</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Cleaning Spells

**Author's Note:**

> Challenge 01: Spells: _It's a simple spell_

"I am  _not_  cleaning,  _that_ ." Draco looked down at the floor of the Owlery in disgust.   
  
"Malfoy, for Merlin's sake, it's just a simple spell! Twist, flick, mumble mumble and you're done." Ginny stood, fist on hips, completely exasperated with her current detention partner. It was his fault they'd gotten caught snogging in the Charms corridor anyway, and she would be damned before he got away with not pulling his own weight on their punishment. It wasn't as if they'd been ordered to do things the Muggle way, after all, just sharp instructions not to return until the entire room was spotless.   
  
"It's  _dung_ !" he protested with a glare thrown in for his very offended well-off sensibilities.   
  
"You don't even have to touch it. God, you're such a baby sometimes, Malfoy!"   
  
"I am not a baby."   
  
"Fine. You're a perfectly mature mostly-grown man. Let me put it this way - do it or I'll hex you into next week... and you  _know_  I can do that."   
  
He scowled once more for good measure before taking out his wand and drawing what looked like an upside down semi-colon while uttering " _Scourgify_ ".   
  
After all, it really  _was_  a simple spell.


	2. Resistance Training

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Drabbles from round two of the Draco/Ginny Last Drabble Writer Standing competition

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Challenge 02: Illusions: _Inspired by this quote: "Love can sometimes be magic. But magic can sometimes... just be an illusion."_

When he turned fourteen, Draco was summoned to his father's study and handed a potion. He carefully uncapped the bottle, freeing a confusing but compelling mix of scents: ink, sunshine, broom twigs, apples, and old Quidditch leathers. The scent warmed him from the inside out, and made his heart feel like it was both so light it might float away and so full and heavy it hurt.   
  
Suddenly, the bottle was roughly snatched from his hand and he watched with badly disguised horror as his father poured it into a bowl already half full of something else. The smells disappeared and if he had been younger, or if his father hadn't been present, Draco thought he might have cried.   
  
"That," his father said curtly, "was  _Amortentia._  As you have seen, it is capable of invoking strong feelings some often refer to as "love". It is an illusion, just as that supposed emotion and all its assorted promises are illusions. It is important that you learn to control and overcome these things and see them for what they truly are. This is your first lesson. We will continue this lesson until you yourself are capable of disregarding the effects, preferably without the help of a nullifying potion. The Dark Lord has great plans for you, Draco," Lucius added, "and we must do what is necessary to prepare you for them."   
  
By the end of his vacation, Draco couldn't tell the difference between a vial of  _Amortentia_  and one of cheap perfume.


	3. Star-Crossed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Drabbles from round two of the Draco/Ginny Last Drabble Writer Standing competition

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Challenge 03: Astronomy: _The Astronomy Tower_

It was one of the stupidest things she'd ever done.   
  
Really, she  _knew_  better - and even if she hadn't? The ever present voices in the back of her head (the ones that sounded strangely like her family) were perfectly clear: Draco Malfoy was not the right person for her to have a crush on. And how ridiculous was it for her to have a crush at all? The phrase seemed to have more to do with the silly teenaged fancies of girls who hadn't ever been through the things she'd been through.   
  
_Memories of what the Cruciatus curse felt like skittered along her skin._   
  
There ought to be a rule somewhere that girls who had been through a war were too grown up to get crushes anymore, but it didn't seem to be working out that way.   
  
He'd just looked so lost when she'd seen him sitting alone in the Great Hall on the first day back at school. He wasn't just alienated from the other Houses now, the Slytherins seemed to have turned their backs on him, as well.   
  
"Ginevra?" Luna's calm, even voice broke through her thinking and brought her back to the courtyard where they were sitting after dinner, waiting for the sun to set.   
  
"Sorry, Luna. Did you ask me something?"   
  
"Only if you were planning to study this evening."   
  
Ginny stared across the grounds at the Astronomy tower. "No... I have a date tonight." She watched his unmistakably pale hair disappear through the doorway.   
  
"Oh, lovely!" Luna sighed. "I was so hoping you wouldn't pine over Harry too long after last year."   
  
Ginny rolled her eyes at the idea of pining over Harry. She'd been a bit angry with him after she'd gotten over being relieved he was alive, but that was all.   
  
As she watched the last of the sun sink down below the castle wall, she twisted her fingers impatiently along the hem of her skirt. She had to wait until after dark or she'd miss him, but patience had never been one of her virtues.   
  
A hour later, Ginny made her way up the somewhat rickety, winding staircase. She'd spent a distressingly large portion of her classes daydreaming about what it would be like to meet him up here, (not to mention what it might be like to kiss him.)  _Stupid, stupid thoughts,_  she chastised herself again. Just going to the Tower was foolish and maybe naive but she couldn't really help herself.   
  
At the top of the stairs, she looked around.  _There,_  she thought, seeing what she was searching for. Leaning against the railing, she gazed up at the night sky and the emerging stars.   
  
The bright one there was Thuban, and she knew that once it had been the North star. Now instead of guiding travelers, it led her as close as she could get to the object of her misplaced affections.  _Draco._ For the moment at least, the constellation that shared his name would have to do.


	4. Risky Business

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Drabbles from round two of the Draco/Ginny Last Drabble Writer Standing competition

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Challenge 05: Wheezes: _Inspired by this quote: "Love is an exploding cigar we willingly smoke." ~ Lynda Barry and must take place at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes_

"You aren't seriously going to do this, are you?" Draco arched an eyebrow at Ginny's back as she carefully rearranged the boxes of trick quills on the shelf in front of her.   
  
"Of course I am. Unless you genuinely don't want me to. If you don't want to date me anymore, then in that case I might rethink it."   
  
"Don't be daft, woman. I want you - you know I want you. But that doesn't mean that you have to do it like this. Here, now. With everyone around. Aren't our nice, quiet,  _private_  dinners enough?"   
  
They were the only two people in this corner of the shop. It was still early yet, and the shop wasn't technically open. That would change in a few short hours, when the first wave of the back to school shoppers would start pouring in. Anticipating the yearly influx, George had begged, wheedled, and bribed the better portion of his siblings and extended family into helping stock the shelves and run the till. No one had noticed Draco yet, thanks to the Invisibility Cloak. Ginny had nicked it from Harry and Ron's apartment the night before when she'd stopped by to see them.   
  
"Is that honestly enough for you?" she retorted, irritably. "If we want this to be anything more than just... whatever it is we've been doing, then we should do this."   
  
"You know your family hates me, don't you? You're just asking for trouble."   
  
"Absolutely. Absolutely, I'm asking for trouble. And they only think they hate you. They hate your name - they have no clue who you really are - and this is the only way we'll get through to them." Finally finished with the quills, she turned to the boxes of Fiery Fun Exploding Candy Cigars and started stacking them three deep on the top shelf.   
  
"This is going to blow up in your face, just like those sodding things do."   
  
"For a little while. Maybe."   
  
"Would you really be willing to trade all this - a family that loves you, a place to belong - for what we have?"   
  
Ginny stood up, slowly. She turned to face the spot she knew he was standing in and was remarkably successful at looking him straight in the eye.   
  
"It is absolutely worth all of this, if that's what it takes. I love you. I want to be with you." Out of the corner of her eye, she could see several of her brothers and her mother looking over to see what was going on. She reached over and tugged on the cloak, pulling it off of him. She thought she heard someone gasp.   
  
"Draco Malfoy," she said, pitching her voice so it carried through the shop, "I love you. Will you marry me?"   
  
There was dead silence for a moment, as her whole family stared at them.   
  
"Yes," he answered, suddenly calm. "Yes, I will."


End file.
